Raggedy Andy Stories eBook

Then the little man put something in each of the tiny
doll stockings, and something in each of the little
china plates for the two penny dolls.

Then, as quietly as he had entered, he left, merely
turning at the door and shaking his finger at the
dolls in a cheery, mischievous manner.

Raggedy Andy heard him chuckling to himself as he
went down the stairs.

Raggedy Andy tiptoed to the door and over to the head
of the stairs.

Then he motioned for the other dolls to come.

There, from the head of the stairs, they watched the
cheery little white-whiskered man take pretty things
from a large sack and place them about the chimneyplace.

“He does not know that we are watching him,”
the dolls all thought, but when the little man had
finished his task, he turned quickly and laughed right
up at the dolls, for he had known that they were watching
him all the time.

Then, again shaking his finger at them in his cheery
manner, the little white-whiskered man swung the sack
to his shoulder, and with a whistle such as the wind
makes when it plays through the chinks of a window,
he was gone—­up the chimney.

The dolls were very quiet as they walked back into
the nursery and sat down to think it all over, and
as they sat there thinking, they heard out in the
night the “tinkle, tinkle, tinkle” of tiny
sleigh bells, growing fainter and fainter as they
disappeared in the distance.

Without a word, but filled with a happy wonder, the
dolls climbed into their beds, just as Marcella had
left them, and pulled the covers up to their chins.

And Raggedy Andy lay there, his little shoe button
eyes looking straight towards the ceiling and smiling
a joyful smile—­not a “half smile”
this time, but a “full size smile.”

[Illustration: Raggedy Andy smiling a joyful
smile]

[Illustration: Raggedy Andy and the Wooden Horse]

[Illustration: Santa leaves the Wooden Horse]

THE WOODEN HORSE

Santa Claus left a whole lot of toys.

A wooden horse, covered with canton flannel and touched
lightly with a paint brush dipped in black paint to
give him a dappled gray appearance, was one of the
presents.

With the wooden horse came a beautiful red wagon with
four yellow wheels. My! The paint was pretty
and shiny.

The wooden horse was hitched to the wagon with a patent
leather harness; and he, himself, stood proudly upon
a red platform running on four little nickel wheels.

It was true that the wooden horse’s eyes were
as far apart as a camel’s and made him look
quite like one when viewed from in front, but he had
soft leather ears and a silken mane and tail.

He was nice to look upon, was the wooden horse.
All the dolls patted him and smoothed his silken mane
and felt his shiny patent leather harness the first
night they were alone with him in the nursery.